ABOITIZ Power Corp. (AboitizPower) is setting aside P50 billion as capital expenditure (capex) budget next year mostly for the expansion and construction of its renewable energy (RE) projects.
“Ballpark of about P50 billion for all our capex. A lot of that is for the growth,” AboitizPower Senior Vice-President for Commercial Operations Juan Alejandro A. Aboitiz told reporters last week.
“A big part of our capex is for new projects primarily for renewables. Fundraising is always a critical component of growth so we’re looking at all of our options to raise more debt to fund our new projects,” he said.
The company has yet to disclose the number of projects next year, but Mr. Aboitiz noted that most of the expansion and new projects are in renewables such as solar and wind energy.
AboitizPower has allotted P32 billion for capex this year, primarily for “the development and construction of various solar, geothermal, hydro, and wind power projects.”
This year’s capex also covers the continuous improvement of the reliability of baseload plants and various land acquisitions, new substations, and new meters for its power distribution business.
The company is currently completing the 159-megawatt peak (MWp) Laoag solar project in Pangasinan which is expected to be fully energized by the second quarter of 2024.
It is also targeting to energize a 17-megawatt (MW) binary geothermal power project in Tiwi, Albay by the first quarter of next year.
In the third quarter, AboitizPower reported an attributable net income of P8.92 billion, 6.4% lower than the P9.53 billion posted in the same quarter last year.
Gross revenues went down by 9% to P48.37 billion from P53.17 billion a year ago.
The company aims to expand its power generation capacity to 9.2 gigawatts (GW), of which half or 4,600 MW will come from various RE sources.
To date, the company has RE projects with a combined capacity of about 1,000 MW that are in the pipeline through its development of wind, solar, and geothermal projects. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera